Chasing the Phantom Past
by DBack47
Summary: When Slade hires Phantom as a bounty hunter, who else would be targeted? Robin must now dive into the past of the hunter to not only save his own skin, but redeem the ghost that is coming to "deal" with him. REVAMPED. Rated T for minor swearing.
1. Plans

_So it's been a while...say well over a year since I touched this. But I am back, maybe for good. Danny Phantom crossover with Teen Titans. Still based off original concept of 'Chasing the Phantom Past' _

_Enjoy. tolerate crappy writing cause that's what you're gittin. _

* * *

Robin once called me immoral and a monster. Beyond that, I fail to see any perceptive reasoning with him. A bright boy, but not capable of philosophical contemplation. Perhaps a man of wisdom, but not a person of thought.

Stupid Robin. He thinks of me as though I am simple. I, of all people, am telling you that there is not a single villain that is truly simple. Even the most crude and idiotic law-breaker has a story to tell, and never the one of pure evil. No sane person alive has been born with a natural inclination to do what is considered morally and ethically wrong. The ones that are inclined are psychopaths, and that's a different subject.

Who am I? That's a good question that I could not answer. I have been many names, many faces, many aliases. Robin only knows me as Slade but he is too limited in his imagination to comprehend who I am. There are so many kinds of crime, and I have dabbled in all of them. Why? That's another good question to which you will not receive a good answer.

But I relent, and I shall hint at who I am, or to be more clear, who I was. Mafia, drug cartels, espionage, sabotage, robbery, fraud…I tried all of them and pride myself…on being a man of capability. To be, powerful, now that is a reason.

Natural law, conscience, morals…nothing is for certain, not even these staples of how right and wrong are determined. What is right to one man is wrong to the next, and no one is clean of guilt, no one can escape. Thus we must choose sides. I choose freedom and power-a way out of being ruled and dominated. Natural Law, conscience, morals…all are subjective and relative, more impulse than permanent and static. Instead of binding myself to these shades of black and white, I am grey. I choose to flirt between them. I choose to seek my own glorification.

I was once with a face. Once a nameless student many years ago at some obscure trade school. I once was tethered to a home and to misery. I was once tethered to a brutal institution of indoctrination and I was humiliated, ground to the dirt by ceaseless insults to who I was. I changed myself and became grey. I became Slade, then a nickname, now a promise.

But that was fundamental, that was basic, that was in the past. I grew to enjoy being freed from morals and did as I wished. I was my own law, my own ambition, with no limit. I seek what I want and I do not stop till I achieve. However, many years have passed and I must move forward and ensure a legacy. Trigon gave me a lease on life, but soon I too shall fall prey to the Sickle of the Reaper. Soon is relative, like everything else, and will not be for many years. My strength has still not abated, my mind still lucid.

I still consider Robin the most stupid and brilliant mind I have ever encountered. He will eventually turn. I tried to force him. I failed. New tactics are needed, pawns shall be moved.

My next plan involves a new character, one that I am unfamiliar with. Dangerous perhaps, but potent. He is similar to Robin in many ways yet starkly different. If I were freed from my conviction that you must end what you started, he would be my candidate for my successor. But he shall be a tool, used like all others to bend Robin to grey, and away from the contrast of black and white that he is still ingrained with.

"Is this Daniel Phantom?"

"_It's Danny…what the hell do you want?" _

"Wetwork, elimination, subjugation, assassination…those are the services you offer, correct?"

"_At a price, sure, but assassinations are out of the picture. Mess with me and that price is your head" _

"Cocky are we? Well, let me make an offer that your pride cannot refuse"

"_We meet and you pay before I lift a finger. Who's the target" _

"A hero like you were, Robin…Teen Titans. You know him?"

"_HIM! Why? You got a problem with him?" _

"Of sorts. I don't want you to kill him, merely toy with him. I offer considerable compensation"

"_Might be fun. I hate the self righteous idiot anyway." _

"Well then we have something in common. Do what I say and I shall leave you alone"

The other end of the phone line was silent for a moment. Clearly, Phantom was more used to being the one dictating orders, not the other way around. Slade was pleased. Phantom sounded cocky but bitter, angry about some deep frustration that made his voice sullen and belligerent. It made him highly unpredictable, and dangerous.

_Who was Phantom? _A disturbing question. Slade was taking an enormous risk with Phantom, as he had with Robin, but even more so with Phantom because there was little to nothing that Slade could identify clearly about his past. To know your enemies, you had to fight them first, especially when you had no other option, and Phantom did not give him one.

He did know quite a bit about him. He was a young bounty hunter that was neither considered a major villain or hero by the Justice League, but classified as a major threat. A Level 4 metahuman was no laughing matter, for it ranked him next to the likes of Raven and outranked Starfire, and far outstripping Robin's level 1.5 status. However, there were hints that he carried a level 5 threat level, but everything was on the table when it came to the strange ghost.

Ghost? It's what he was called; a scientific and spectral anomaly that had appeared 5 years ago in a small town named Amity Park where there was a 12 month spurge of supernatural activity that then suddenly vanished. Danny Phantom emerged almost in synchronous with the appearance of the sudden spectral hotspot and initially appeared to fight it, wearing an honest to goodness spandex suit. Had things turned out well, he would have probably gone where Robin went-a spandex toting goody two shoes but instead he had allegedly caused two acts of manslaughter and then, when the authorities tried to control him, he allegedly resisted arrest and killed one of his attackers and seriously injured several others.

There was more about him and his enemies and various escapades but those were inconsequential. The fact of the matter was that Phantom abandoned his home town and became a odd jobs man, with few qualms about doing anything for the right price except killing people.

"_Alright, sure. Meet in Los Angeles in 2 days on top of the US Bank building tower at midnight. Come alone or you'll be alone."_

Slade clicked the phone receiver and let his hands drop. His mind was stirring, contemplating, and deducing his next step. It was a game, one of his favorite ones. Robbery was simple. Hacking had been a challenge at first, and smuggling was even more interesting. Such games were fun but basic-they dealt with such basic principles of stealth, covertness, simple logic and timing, with some programming in terms of hacking. But this-this was a game of fighting the mind-figuring out a person's weaknesses, their assets, their allies, their escapes. It delved into something much more convoluted, involved than the steely components of usual crime. Phantom was new and perhaps a future asset…but as of now he was only pawn.

His scheme was extensive. His robots were in place, his weapons primed, Cinderblock and Plasmus in play. Phantom was the tip of the iceburg. Slade still held all the cards.


	2. Past Visage

The air rippled, the night itself seeming to bend, before it relented, revealing Phantom as he winked back into existence. It was cold and windy, some ugly storm brewing in the distance to the North, the dark shapes of heavy clouds laden with rain illuminated by the dull but intense flashes of obscured lightning and heard by the deep throated rumble of thunder. The biting, shifting air didn't bother him whatsoever, considering that he himself was an origin of the frost and snow, but the sound did, seeming to darken his own mood as he touched down on the asphalt rooftop of the US Bank Tower. Glittering, the crown of the city stood like a gleaming like a well shined trophy, the lights of its rooftop glass circlet glaring into the dully black night, shined by the muffled lights of the city streets far below the lofty heights of its penthouse.

It was threatening to shower any moment, a late autumn cascade of water that would have ruined any other meeting; the Phantom was made of sterner stuff. The rain actually gave him several advantages, if he needed to use them. Anyway, had nothing but poorly hidden contempt for whoever his client was and whatever his petty little mission was to be. Probably some disgruntled businessman or vengeful criminal that had had their asses handed to them by Robin.

Slade watched him silently in the shadow of an air conditioning unit, resting his eyes on this strange and new character, who was neither villain nor hero. He was impressed. Phantom was in his late teens or early 20's if he had to guess, a lean and lithe young man of slightly taller than average height, and a handsome face that wore a scornful expression.

The photos had shown a superhero dressed in tights that were almost as bad as Batman's and conspicuous beyond all get out, a blatant dare to any rival or enemy, but this Phantom was older and much more stern, perhaps much more bitter person than the spunky teenager that Slade had seen during his research, sporting a purely functional thick grey shirt with grey leather gloves. He wore a harness of sorts and a belt, once again purely functional, for holding several alien looking weapons and mechanisms that included what looked like two jury rigged thermoses, boomerangs and grenades that hung from the belt and some knives of varying length. His Cargo pants were less cumbersome, being more tightly fitting and clean of any dangling objects that adorned his chest and belt, made of the sort of material that a diver or skydiver would wear, running down to knee high, exposed steel tipped, combat boots that were laced tightly.

He was dangerous even without the rather…supernatural aspect that he carried. There was a faint sheen, aura that surrounded him, just barely making him translucent and pulsating with a hidden power that shifted, bending reality itself like the mirage generated by heat over asphalt. It culminated into two unnaturally crimson eyes, the irises glowing faintly and iridescent silver hair that was carefully maintained, being short in the back by with a slight tuff towards the forehead, too long for a military cut but far too short for it to be mere flamboyance-most likely a matter of preference.

It didn't really matter, it was just to get a good picture of what his adversary looked like. What counted was who this person was and Slade quietly rubbed his hands, pleased. There was some sort of deep sunken pain within those eyes that was angry and upset over some great denial of passion or desire. This was a individual who had wounded pride, covering up some great wound to his ego and ambition with a wily sort of philosophical wisdom that was far beyond his years. His face, the faint scars that ran across it, the tenseness of his muscles and somber eyes were the marks of a war veteran, not a young man ready to take on the world.

This was a guy who had been to hell and back. It gave Slade opportunity as well as a risk. This was a person that could lash out and strike like a cornered animal, or a loyal ally. Either way, this was going to be interesting.

"Good evening" Slade drawled, still hidden in the shadows. Phantom's head swiveled towards his direction. Advanced sense of hearing likely.

"If you can't even talk to me without playing hide-and seek you can go home. Cut the bullcrap and get out here. One wrong move sir and you will have the night to talk to. I'm out of here on a wrong move. Let's get this straight, I'm going to dictate terms and you tell me what you want to do, understand?"

"So strong minded, but alright Phantom, whatever you say" Slade lifted his hands up and stepped forward. Phantom lifted an eyebrow, a quick of his scowl hinting at his surprise. Slade's appearance was slightly…discomforting, but nothing that was going to upset the bounty hunter, who turned to face him and crossed his arms. Slade noticed that he was slightly more nervous, astonishingly beginning to float, his feet leaving the ground by a few inches, the reaction comparable to some intimidated cat raising its back in an attempt to seem larger and more threatening. Good. The boy knew how to respect his elders and recognize an opponent when he saw one.

"Not used to the big games?" Slade dropped his hands and put them behind his back. "I think you should be aware of the fact that both of us are dangerous and are a considerable step above the usual criminal."

"I'm not a criminal, I am Phantom, my own man with my own label" he growled. "but alright, so do you have a name?"

"I have many, but Robin knows me best, in fact he only knows me as…Slade"

"Fine…so you have an issue with Robin? Something I can rectify?" he asked, relaxing now the initial shock was over. His voice had a particular twang to it, a slight pitch that was unmistakable to the trained ear, but indiscernible to anyone else.

"Is that a Midwest accent? Let me see…Chicago, no wait, not Chicago but close to it. Amity Park?"

"That's none of your business and you will lose mine if you press it mister" Danny spat. "Now in the words of Darth Vader, you can dispense with the pleasantries" he said this in an remarkably good mimic of the fictional Sith Lord "and in my words, cut the crap. What'dya want?" he said more emphatically, beginning to float forward suddenly antagonistically.

"Alright, two can play that game. I'm a client that has a certain task, simple but tricky. But first, do I have reason to have confidence in your capabilities?"

"I have a 100% rate of success and my resume is online under the keywords 'Phantom'. I'm sure you'll find my list of accomplishments are extensive" he said in a unimpressed monotone. Phantom was more unfriendly now, a twitch in his lip showing the disdain that the bounty hunter now had for him. Time to change tactics, perhaps an appeal to his sense of competitiveness.

"Fine, what about a test of sorts?"

"I'm not a circus act" he muttered, a dark memory crossing his expression, but his interest was perked.

"Hand to hand spar?"

Phantom paused before he suddenly grinned, a predatory, hungry grin. "I like the way that you think." Slade realized that this person was someone that lived for the adrenaline of the fight. The way his fingers suddenly twitched, he fell into an immediate fighting stance and his neon eyes grew sharp and glowed fiercer till they held a burnished crimson blaze within the irises like the way the light reflects in the eyes of a cat.

"Thank you…no cheating, let's make this a fair match shall we?" Slade fell into a partial crouch. "Do not overestimate yourself"

"It's not boasting if you can't back it up" he trilled in a haughty, playful voice. The sudden expression of glee, the excitement that the word 'spar' had induced in the bounty hunter was such a change from his careless demeanor that Slade was surprised, which was very unusual for him. The boy seemed to finally show his true age of a happy young man in his 20's. He was a born fighter, and it was his element. Not negotiations, not the shady business of the underworld, but the excitement of the battle brought out the true Phantom.

So similar to Robin. It made both of them highly dangerous and courageous but reckless and imprudent. Fools. Ah Well. Gave him the upper hand and the opportunity to exert control. Perfect.

He struck first, just like Robin would. He stayed true to his word, he used no apparent supernatural abilities, but he was unnaturally quick, swinging forward. Phantom was rough and unrefined, yet a dynamo of energy and inhumanely fast and rapid, which made him a challenging opponent. Robin was a marvel of a fighter, because he used all of his dimensions to his advantage, jumping, moving, leaping, swinging, using his legs almost as much as his hands to combat his enemies. It was a bewildering way to fight and lesser men would succumb to Robin's flurry of moves that would attack from above, to the sides, center and from behind at a breakneck pace within seconds. The best way to counter this style of combat, which was unique to Robin and designed for quick and devastating take downs, was to work defensively, play for time and strategically strike. Slade had made this method of fighting an art.

Slade was more methodical than the all out, quick paced style of Robin. He retreated and blocked with wide moves till he found a good opening, then striking heavily and bluntly. It was a cruder but less energy consuming way to fight, and it was easier to think out a strategy and typically sent the enemy for a tailspin. It required an enormous amount of strength, endurance and a trained eye, and was considered one of the most difficult ways to combat hand-to hand. Slade had mastered it and used it so effectively against Robin, he knew that it had been exactly how Batman had trained the boy and why the two of them matched up so well. Phantom was considerably different.

Phantom's style of fighting was even more sloppy, and haphazard, more of a street fighter than a professional, but he made up for his shortcomings with sheer energy, despite the lack of precision. He attacked in jerky moves that were unpredictable and dangerous, switching from one side to the other at irregular intervals unlike the almost rhythmic fighting that Robin carried out. His fighting moves were mostly direct and conventional, mostly using his hands and upper body to engage the opponent fully. He did however swipe at his legs with his own and pulled several unorthodox moves that were startling and deadly. It was a style developed to be defensively offensive, unlike Robin's fully offensive strikes, which ensured that Slade was watching his every move. Slade's own attempts to strike made Phantom jump back. It was a waste of effort and reset the playing field, but ensured that it was truly a fair fight.

Overall, they were evenly matched. Phantom was unnaturally quick but Slade simply defended and attempted to land some heavy blows on the slighter bounty hunter, only to be shocked when his hands and fists only contacted half of the time and only when he caught Phantom off guard. On the flip side, sometimes Danny punched him through his blocks and swipes, his fists going through his own raised arms and striking him, hard with a strength that the thin frame bounty hunter belied.

Even so, Slade began to be more successful in sending Phantom staggering backwards, rushing forwards and then pressing him onto the defensive. The spar match became more rough. Several bruises became apparent and their moves became mutually more ragged. Robin had less stamina than the energetic bounty hunter, which made the fight more drawn out.

Slade watched carefully. It was time to make a bold move, perhaps ones to change the tables in his favor. He had to be quick, Phantom was flighty and had an eye for surprises, so he had to plan this strike properly.

Phantom unleashed a fist to Slade's torso that was swiped away by a swinging block which Slade followed with a punch to Phantom's hip that he dodged by swiveling to the left and kicking the offending punch away before following with a series of strikes at Slade's center. Slade then made his move, unleashing some stored reserve of energy and blasting forward, bewildering the bounty hunter, brushing off his own punches before using his own. Slade swayed to discourage counterattack and allow him to attack Phantom on 3 angles, to his center and two off angled flanks. The bounty hunter became more drastic, moving into high gear by frenetically blocking with waving arms and hands, just barely managing to stave off disaster. For the Coup de Gras, Slade jumped and kicked forward with his entire body and every bit of strength that he could muster. This was too much and Phantom was sent staggering backwards, managing somehow to stay standing but completely unbalanced. Perfect.

Slade reached for a hidden compartment on his armor and in a lightning fast move, unleashed a device that looked like a contact-only Taser that had an exposed contact at the end that sparkled with a crimson spark of electricity and jabbed it into Phantom's ribcage.

Their fight came abruptly to a halt, the two of them suddenly frozen. Phantom finally fell onto his rear, with Slade bending down with the Taser jabbed into Phantom's ribs. Phantom's crimson eyes widened in shock as he looked down with an agape mouth at the device that was still sparkling and crackling, in contact with him. He was triumphant. Slade now had the ghost in his pocket and there was nothing he could do about it.

But Phantom didn't follow that plan, nor any logical or expected outcome. He looked up at Slade and frowned, with nothing more than an annoyed look on his face.

"Now THAT's not fair"

And then he dissolved into green smoke, literally dematerializing before Slade's eyes. Was that it? Had he killed him? Why did he look annoyed? For once, Slade was caught unprepared. He didn't have time to take precautions before Phantom's voice spoke again.

"I think of myself as someone who is hard to annoy. I've had years of obnoxious enemies to deal with and I thought that they inoculated me against such ambushes but congratulations you've just one the certificate of most obnoxious adversary of the day and now you win your prize." He finished in a deadly tone.

Phantom emerged from the darkness, crimson eyes half lidded, floating, hands glowing with jade-green energy that pulsed hungrily. He emerged again.

Slade stepped back, his expression like the time Raven had gotten mad at him. Not one, not two but three more Phantoms appeared, identical in expression and movement but slightly staggered into a floating triangle formation.

"Duplication?" he asked quietly.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve and never come alone" one of the Phantoms said. "and I always make sure that I don't leave loose ends."

"You'll find that I come prepared as well" Slade said, recomposed from his surprise. He snapped his fingers. 20 of his robots stepped out of dark, eyes trained on Slade's new opponent.

They stood, facing each other. For the first time, Slade was not only impressed, but slightly unsettled. Unlike Robin, Phantom was more controlled when he was angry, noticebally, as if the ghost had trained himself to be this way. There was something frightful about his cold anger, how it was so cultured and poised but still ready to lash out at a second's notice. Slade himself rarely got angry, and preferred a subtle sense of frustration instead of the raw and uncouth emotion of rage. It was a powerful emotion that was a double edged sword that Phantom had apparently mastered. The sheer amounts of energy that were driven by his anger, the cold line he held his mouth in instead of the gritted teeth that Robin would bear, the readiness he held himself at. It was admirable really.

Time to change tactics. Time to, as Phantom had put it so bluntly, 'cut the crap' and cut to the chase.

"So…I see that we are evenly matched, yes?"

"I wouldn't agree. There's no such thing as an evenly matched pair, merely equally challenged" Phantom said, tense.

"A wise statement indeed. Now that we have danced, let us court each other. I do want a favor done, so let's bribe one another. I know that you are in trouble with the law, yes?"

"Let's not go there shall we?" the bounty hunter said, slightly more angrily than before.

"No, how about a clean slate. I can destroy all evidence and records of those cases of manslaughter and that charge of first degree murder. I can't wipe people's memory, but any lawsuits and trials will be unfounded, you'll be like a free man"

Phantom considered this for a moment, but still angry, changed the subject. "So you got your hands on a Plasmius Maximus?" he said, referring to the taser that Slade had used.

"I purchased one at considerable cost, which correlates to the large monetary sum I promise you in return for any services provided"

"I don't take any type of cash that I haven't earned or stolen myself so you can keep whatever dirty money you have. But you did your homework. How did you find out about the Maximus, it's a rather exclusive thingy that the old fruitloop has"

"Fruitloop? I got it offline. Ebay actually"

"Really?" Phanatom scrunched his eyebrow in confusion. "Skulker must be selling them" he muttered under his breath.

"I am aware that you also in trouble with the FGIW"

Phantom froze, his eyes narrowing at the acronym. "Yeah, I know about the Federal Ghost Investigation and Weapons program, why?"

"I have friends in high places that could…make you a ghost, even to them." Slade invisibly smiled when Phantom straightened up, finally interested but very doubtful. He thought for a moment, scratching the back of his neck. Most unexpectedly, his copies dissolved away into green vapor, leaving just one bemused bounty hunter.

"Now that is something, but you'll need to prove it"

"I can wipe one section of evidence away per task you finish for me. Records, photos, DNA samples"

"You're not joking" Phantom said with a breathless voice. "You could really do that?"

"In exchange for you services, of course. It would be my pleasure". The initial atmosphere of anger had vanished and Slade knew that he was finally getting somewhere. Just a bit more promise and Phantom was on his roll pay. Excellent. The ghost thought, considering the tempting offer. The GIW had been trailing him for nearly 4 years now and were getting better at tracking him down and attempting to capture him every time. They were the reason why he was a failed hero and on the wrong side of law. They were a pain in the neck and it meant a lot to him if that fact was gone. Slade seemed to be serious.

"Alright, I'll do it"


	3. Finding Time

_**To the Literary Lord: I promise to send the original to you, it's just been really busy recently. Thanks for your support, it's really what is driving this story. **_

* * *

"So we know that the trigonometric functions of sin, cosine and tangent correlate to secant, cosecant and cotangent, but you have to be careful to make a difference between these and the inverse of the functions, which are…"

"Whatever" Robin put his head on the table and closed his eyes, bored. He was a good student…when he tried, but most of the time, he found that classroom style learning was as boring as it sounded. It was actually pretty sad that he was there at all. It was an indication at the current state of the Teen Titans. After the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil, they had placed the majority of all known super villains on ice and then, with a mutual effort from an international network of superheroes and tracked down the remaining villains and put them behind bars, most of them permanently. But it wasn't just that, they had simply seen major super villain crime drop off substantially. Many had become disinterested, others had simply lost the ambition to fight, and a few had even been rehabilitated.

For anyone else, that was reason for celebration, but for Robin, it was merely disappointing. Now that all the villains were in jail, there was mostly just petty crime to work with, and most of that sort of stuff was within the police's ability to control. Jump City already had one of the lowest crime rates in the country, mostly because of the mere presence of the Teen Titans, and now that the Teen Titans had really nothing better to do than just catch the local rapist, mugger and disgruntled gang member, few criminals were daring enough to commit any serious crimes.

So it all ended with Robin spending days on the couch in the Teen Tower, watching TV, bored. He did plenty of work and training, but other than that, there wasn't much to do. There was the occasional serious fire or crime to respond too, and Robin jumped joyously at those opportunities, but they were few and far between, almost never meriting no more than a few hours of action. And It was overkill to simply send the entire team to tackle the problem.

But their inactivity alone seemed to be the enemy. The new city mayor had, in efforts to cut down on Jump City's considerable debt, cut the Teen Titan's budget till it was really just enough to pay the utilities. Robin now had to really save up to buy any new gadgets and grocery shopping wasn't as slap happy as it used to be. They had to watch their credit card. Even more strange was when the city had come to him and demanded that he and Beast Boy go to school on the grounds that since the city financed the Teen Titans, they should had least comply with some legal requirements. It was outrageous in his opinion, mostly because he simply didn't want to, but when the city threatened to eliminate the tax exemption on the tower and force the team to pay the mortgage, he had relented. Beast Boy was unwilling at first, but when he found out that being a green shape shifter made him the greatest girl magnet since Orlando Bloom, it wasn't so bad.

He wasn't uneducated. He had been taking online classes in his spare time, but he still lagged considerably. Here he was, technically a high school Senior taking trigonometry with a bunch of Juniors and sucking at it at a local community college. Great. He was used to learning now ways to smash Mumbo Jumbo's hat into his skull with his staff. Now he was learning how to make parabolas.

Things could be worse, he supposed.

The bell rang and the class of 25 some various students got up to leave while the teacher answered some lingering questions. Robin didn't care enough that his grade hovered in the C range. He just wanted to graduate. He didn't associate with either the banal, uninteresting crowd of insecure basement kids nor the arrogant nature of the over praised athletes with their spoiled friends. Go figure.

He silently shoved his way through clogged hallways and ignored the vacuous petty talk that seemed to be a devious scheme to drive him insane and went to his next class. Nobody really noticed him, save a few girls that sent him interested looks. Other than that, he didn't talk to them and they didn't talk to him. The administration of the school had given him the assumed name of 'Robin Flails' so that he could enjoy a lack a lack of attention. Thank goodness for that.

His next class was probably the most interesting. Art had always been a fun way to let off steam even out of school, although he was a mediocre sketcher at best. He preferred the wood working shop, which reminded him of building new boomerangs.

He sat down at his own table, alone. Or at least he assumed. Someone else sat down with him today. A guy that looked like a young freshmen in college, but he couldn't tell. As far as he knew, it was just another new student, the sort that came and went from year to year. Then something caught his attention. The way the guy's blue eyes moved from side to side, sharp and quick. They were rather peculiar eyes to, having almost a faint glow around them, as though they reflected light like the eyes of some canine. It was a trick of the light he knew, but it was interesting none the less. No matter. Other than that, the guy wore casual, unassuming clothes with ordinary black hair, complete with some facial blemishes and dandruff. But why did he sit down at his table?

"Hey…" he tapped the guy, who was about his height (around 6 foot)

"Yeah?" he turned his head and smiled friendlily at him.

"Could you move?"

"Do you have a problem with me sitting here? There's really no other tables to sit at"

"Doesn't matter, you can sit elsewhere, not here" Robin said icily. This guy was going to be either a pain or an idiot he could tell off the bat. Instead of complying, the guy extended a hand. Shoot, now it was going to be some brown-nose half-baked optimist that came to ruin his mood.

"Well let's start off the right way. I'm Danny Fenton" but Robin just pushed the hand away and glared at him with his famous stare. "Move" he said, more emphatically at this point.

"Well Jezz, what kind'a pompous wonder boy are you? Can't even shake a hand?" he chuckled, seeming to ignore Robin's unfriendliness entirely. Was this guy for real? "Seriously, do you think that I am joking when I ask you to move, now get out of here!" Danny didn't have the chance to respond when the bell rang.

"Goooood affternooon class and please get out your sketches so I can check them. And we having a Art Flow Chart quiz in 10 minutes so please study for that" the art teacher, a real interesting case with her enormous glasses and hippie-esk attire and dazed voice said as she addressed the room.

"Damn it" Robin swore. He hadn't studied for that and crap, he didn't know quite where his review sheet was.

"Need a sheet?" Danny seemingly read his mind as he pulled out a chart from his book bag, smiling the entire time. Robin stopped and took a good look at this Danny Fenton. Handsome, not to skinny nor wide or bulky, about his height, and a pleasant expression. But there was something almost sinister about him, his eyes which were slightly too sharp, his apparent age which was too old for high school, the slight superficiality of his smile, and the heavy creases from stress and anxiety upon his forehead. Most interestingly, silver strands of hair were conspicuously visible in his ebony locks, looking much too natural and haphazardly placed to be any sort of fashion statement.

This guy was not what he appeared, Robin could practically smell it (the guy had no strong odor, neither a sports jock nor a pompous cologne wearing jerk nor a shower shunning basement kid. At least that was a plus…wow was he just sick, checking out a guy's smell? Guess it came from his paranoia) and he did not at all seem entirely sincere…but he needed that chart.

"Thanks" Robin grunted as he grabbed the chart from Danny's hand and looked at it, not caring that Danny wasn't able to see it from over his shoulder. Hopefully his intended selfishness would drive him away, but the kid was still there, smiling when he turned around.

After a few minutes, Robin sighed and handed the chart back wordlessly, feeling better about the quiz. He jabbed Danny rudely in the side. "Where'dya come from?"

"Michigan, but I moved out here because of a job"

"You? You mean your Dad, your family?"

Danny shrugged, neither saying yes nor no. "I just ended up out here"

"You seem old to be in high school"

"Looks can be deceiving" he raised his eyebrow enigmatically, as though he knew and meant something that Robin didn't know. Robin just scowled and waited for the quiz to be passed out.

* * *

Robin pulled into the parking garage beneath the Teen Titan Tower on his motor bike and leaned it onto its kickstand besides Beast Boy's car. Go figure. His car. He had begged for one as soon as he had turned 16 and had gotten one. The rest of the Titans had stood far away and closed their eyes in anticipation of pure disaster as Beast Boy inserted the key into the ignition, and then…

He turned out to be a half decent driver, when he was on his best behavior that was. On the other hand…when he was a bit more beast than boy….

His license was suspended and for good reason. Nearly every window was cracked, right rear view mirror long gone and multiple dents adorned the body. One of the tail lights was a giant hole and the radiator grill was so bashed up that it looked like some sort of impressionist art gone wrong. Yeah, Beast Boy could only drive when he was both awake and sane. Anytime else and he either ended up with a hefty ticket or in an accident. It was a miracle that he hadn't killed himself yet. But it just felt somewhat strange to see Beast Boy driving because it was an indication that they were all getting older, except for Raven and Starfire. Cyborg was now majoring in, or course, cybernetics at Berkley down in San Francisco, no surprise there, but it just seemed so strange. They were known as the Teen Titans, not the young adult Titans. It was just unfair that time wasn't staying still, letting them live like they did in those first few golden years of bliss and action where the villains were dangerous and plentiful, the adventures numerous and exciting. But time didn't stay still. Even Raven hadn't figured out how to work that one. Speaking of Raven…

She was floating, cross legged before the great glass panes in the main cavernous living room, eyes closed as she chanted an ancient verse that assisted in her meditation. Objects around the room were floating silently, Raven unwittingly filling the room with her potent power that made gravity become nullified.

Robin sauntered out of the elevator from the garage and made his way over to the counter of the kitchenette, dropping his book bag and then putting his mask on. Robin without his mask was like bread without butter…they just went together and it felt good to don the protection of his true, heroic identity.

"So how was your day?" Raven asked, not caring to turn around, still floating. It was a habitual question.

"Actually…yeah pretty good, I mean, I made a friend" he rubbed the back of his neck somewhat sheepishly. He had sworn to the team that school would be strictly perfunctory and there would be no friend-making. He already had the Titans, why would he make do with some low down, unsuper, pretentious and anxiety prone classmate? Now he had made one, no matter how much he wanted to deny the fact.

"Good" Raven murmured, before levitating a full 180 degree turn to face him.

She had changed too as the years passed. Robin couldn't help but notice her subtle, dark beauty that had really intensified with age, and her control over both her emotions and enhancing powers that seemed limitless.

Currently, Raven alone was capable of defeating any known enemy and their team's trump card, their strongest player. Strange that she had relaxed overtime. She still wore her dark purple cloak but now wore casual clothes instead of the Leotard that had been her almost exclusive clothing article in the first 2 years. Black, loose jeans, the same shoes, but a long sleeve black shirt made her seem more like a usual girl than the half demon she really was. Didn't matter, she was still a beauty.

"So what is your definition of a friend, somebody you just like talking too?" Raven raised a slender violet eyebrow. Robin sat down on the coach as he shrugged.

"Dunno, he just…it was odd that he just sat down right next to me and…talked. He was really, open. I like that"

"That's it?" Raven asked. Robin averted his eyes under Raven's intense stare from her sharp blue eyes. "No. He's a new student, just switched in. Seems kind of old to be switching in, he looks like 19 or something, but I guess…he's alright. Anyway, he has like 4 classes with me. He only sat next to me in art but all day we just somehow ended up talking to each other. We were assigned partners by some of the teachers and…it's really coincidental. But he, I don't know, he's sharp, intelligent, he knows a lot, seems to breeze through his classes, he seems to like everyone and…"

"So you just got sweet talked by some suck-up? Congratulations Robin you just won the friendly award for being schmoozed by some out-of-state nobody" Raven snorted in amusement. Robin frowned.

"It's not that either!" he said with restrained emphasis, his tone of voice thoughtful and quiet. "We just really saw eye to eye on a lot of things. Philosophy, politics, heroes, sports…we just got into these really neat conversations that were…illuminating. Sort of the kind of guy you would like Raven"

"Ha, that's a good joke Robin" Raven had closed her eyes again, her voice in a soothing murmur. "What's his name?"

"Fenton, Danny Fenton…I like the sound of that. Maybe a boyfriend for you?"

"I'll make sure your pants can't be unzipped for the next half a day if you say the word boyfriend to me again" Raven's eyes flashed open and she glared at him with a feral growl at the back of her throat. Robin gulped. Raven was capable of using her powers to do so…and pants he wasn't able to take off could be a very serious problem. "Whoa there Raven, no need to get upset" he said, placating her. The two of them lapsed into a moment of silence, before Robin spoke again.

"What made you so snappy about that?"

"Love is a powerful emotion Robin" Raven said without hesitation. "It's dangerous and can destabilize my already unstable powers. Not to mention that my last love crush was a backstabbing dragon in disguise. A symbol for boys as a whole you suppose?"

"Hey" Robin said in protest "We are not all backstabbers"

"From my perspective, boys are the ficklest creatures in existence." Raven finished emphatically. "And besides, it's just a distraction"

"From what? If you haven't noticed Raven, we really haven't had a real call of duty for years now. We're getting older and we're at peace."

"That can change"

"Yes but so do we. I don't know about you, but the team is growing up Raven. Beast Boy is driving now and, I'm about to enter college if the city has its way with my education and we haven't seen Cyborg in weeks since he last visited. Heck, he might propose to Bumble Bee in the next year"

"He would nev…"

"Yeah he would. He may be part machine but he's probably more human in terms of thinking than the rest of us. He's got dreams Raven and passions. We wouldn't withhold that from him would we?"

"Robin…" Raven sighed and faced him, her eyes abruptly cast downwards. "It's just not the life for me. The team is growing up I know that but we are all different people, different ambitions, different destiny's. Face it, our greatest enemy is the test of time itself. Sooner or later the Titans might have to go their separate ways"

Robin had put his head on his fist, leaning on his knees in deep thought. "I know that. But that's why the team has worked so well, we depended on each other…survived with one another. It's just something that I haven't been thinking about" he stopped talking for a brief moment before looking back up at Raven.

"But that's what made us a team, the fact that we were 5 different people with our own problems that relied on each other's strength to get through them. The Titans might unravel, but we always are here for each other."

"Sure, whatever. Tell that to Beast Boy and get that kid home before dark, Cyborg back from college and Starfire back from vacation." Raven said and then turned away. Robin felt slightly crest fallen but still hopeful. He got up and hesitantly gave Raven a squeeze on the shoulder, just in case she lashed out at him. She didn't and Robin walked off, leaving Raven to her peace.

* * *

It was odd that over time, they had become less like heroes and more mundane. Teenage angst had been rife in their early days, but now was the equivalent of faint white noise in the background of daily living. Robin knew this. He knew that their team had become much less cohesive in the past years and more insular. They were all going their own ways. He and Starfire were still going steady in the three or so years of a relationship and he loved her to pieces and vice versa. They were yearning to escape the team, both of them…to strike out into the wide world and just become a single couple, permanent and away from the destabilizing elements that were within the hallways of the Titans Tower. Beast Boy was at the top of his game in high school, enormously popular and becoming something of a celebrity. More importantly, he was becoming more independent. Soon enough he would have his own dreams too. Cyborg already was building a life of his own, dreaming of a family and a steady occupation, instead of just years of insecurities about being a cyborg. Last but not least was Raven…what did Raven want?

The Tower was silent and echoing as he came to his good old room. He missed Starfire, a lot. He didn't feel so lonely and melancholy when she was around. She awakened a spirit in him that died every time they left. But she wanted to visit her home planet and Robin couldn't keep her around for long, and so she had gone for a month. What a long time a month seemed.

"_Time is relative, it is only measurable in the eyes of the beholder, nothing stays ever the same, because time never is the same. It seems the same by the measure of the clock, but sit down and watch, you'll notice that time is incredibly dynamic" _

_Danny was more or less rambling as Robin listened silently, but finally Robin spoke up. "You sound like you've played with it in your own hands" _

_Danny stared at Robin for a split second with a pained look on his face before shrugging. "It's just some observations I made"_

Robin recalled the clip of a conversation he had with Danny at school. He had a good point…

He sat down at his desk and pulled out the old uniform that he had once worn 24/7. The old colors of red, green and brass. He felt the skin tight fabric and ran his hands through it. It felt good to the touch, soft yet sleek and ready to be used at moment's notice; a symbol of who he was, who the Titans were…the masks they wore as heroes to hide the fact that on the inside, they still struggled with everyday problems.

The alarm went off, flashing red lights and the sirens blaring through the hallways.

"trouble…" Robin said quietly to himself, but something kept him rooted in his seat. The sound of the alarm was familiar, but somewhat fresh. It hadn't gone off in a while. Was he ready? Was he willing? Could he still live as he always had, the hero, selfless and bold, brave and fearless? Could he stand so firm against a future so vast and unknown?

He began pulling off his casual clothes and began to don the uniform. Of course he would, he was Robin.

* * *

**Thank you to all three prior reviewers. **

DarkNekoGirl92

kirara the great

cocoa85715

ChopSuzi


	4. A clash of supernaturals

The night was unsettled. Some great clash of titans was brewing, between two dynamos of extreme amounts of raw power. Danny knew this and mentally prepared for it. He was somewhat excited that, for the first time many months, he would be exercising his skills and energies to the absolute limit, facing off against an enemy that he questioned he could beat.

Raven-half human half demon. She was legendary even in the ghost realm, where rumor spoke of some battle in the deeper levels of the world of the dead between some ancient evil and its prodigy. For a month, the ghost realm had been put ill at ease by a flux of great amounts of power from a great clash not far off from the demons that sometimes prowled from those lower depths of the zone. Spectra was affected the most, being a demon herself; she had fled from the place, hysterical about some Armageddon that was promised by prophesy that had to do with a girl named Raven and her father Triagon.

Then word came that Raven had overwhelmed her father and returned balance to the realms of the dead. Life went on, but rumors abounded.

It was difficult to split fact from fiction, but Danny had learned that Raven was a prodigious empath, a tremendous manipulator of dark energies and magic-she was formidable. The rumors of her power were great, so great that Danny had questioned whether it was wise to challenge a person of her capability, but he was also a great energy manipulator, on par with the Ghost King Pariah and at least close to the other hybrid ghost Plasmius so he decided to try his chances. He also was a supreme hand to hand fighter. It wasn't what you brought to the battle but how you executed it. He would use his every practical advantage to win.

The prize was simple-establishment. He needed to establish himself as a serious contender to the supremacy of the Titans in Jump City, and if he could fight their most powerful member to a standstill, he would be a threat to them indeed. Those were his orders anyway.

He arrived, the sun still high in the sky. Cloaking himself in a shroud of invisibility, becoming no more than a minor disturbance of air, he choose his battle ground carefully. Downtown, with the high rise skyscrapers was ideal. He could fight her in the air, as he preferred, air being his medium for battle, and use the blind corners as ambush points. What was important was to engage her at point blank range to ensure she couldn't employ any long range telepathic or telekinetic attacks. Both would put him at a disadvantage and he was more used to fighting up close and personal anyway. If worse came to worse, he could set up a diversion and tear a portal to escape to the ghost zone.

He was ready and set. The sun was dipping closer to the horizon now, but was obscured by some heavy clouds that darkened the city and set the skyscrapers and city below ablaze with the electric fires of the modern age. With that, he began to stretch his abilities and became a public spectacle to attract the attention of the Titans. With some luck, they would be attracted like moths to a light.

He tore upwards, letting invisibility abandon him and began to rise, like some sort of rocket into the sky. He pushed his speed. 100, 200, 400, 600 … the air blasted his face and he threw up a cackling barrier of his emerald potent energy to deflect the high speed winds. His legs had morphed into a spectral, ethereal tail that glowed with the power he was outputting to reach unimaginable speeds as he paced himself at ever faster speeds. From afar, he appeared to be a streaking meteor blazing into the sky, blasting off vertically like some sort of strange mission to outer space.

Below, traffic slowed, people looked up and pointed, late night office workers craned their necks from their lofty skyscraper windows and looked up in wonder and anxiety. For a city that had seen every anomaly possible from aliens, distorted related, the apocalypse-they were extremely suspicious of such phenomenon and didn't hesitate to call the police. The police were at a loss of what to do.

The green streak of bright jade energy now began to arch through the high heights, weaving back and forth, doing loops and spirals.

Danny laughed with exhilaration. Flying so fast…doing complicated patterns-it was the only way to momentarily leave the world about him and bury his aching heart and forget his torn conscience, his regrets, his anger and frustrations, lost dreams and scared past and just enjoy the bliss of him and the sky. He just wanted to do this…forever, but his traitorous mind reminded him that he had a job to do, and thus he began to make much more conspicuous movements.

He began to leave, in his wake, great bands of residual energy that marked his flight patterns. In the city below, this new behavior, of great streaks that painted the celestial dome that looked similar to the northern lights. However, despite the strange beauty it presented, it also frightened many residents and prompted the police to take further action, but the mayor, sitting behind his great desk, hesitated to press the hotline to the Titans Tower…not yet. No direct damage or harm had been caused.

Time to do some damage. Danny felt a wicked thrill charge him as he increased his speed and then dived. 600, 700… The air surrounding his shields began to condense, forming a sheering cloud of tearing mist that suddenly blasted away as he moved past the speed limit of sound.

Windows rattled, cats and dogs howled, street lamps shattered and broke as a sonic boom rocked Jump City. It was thus that the mayor's vast bay window from the municipal office cracked from the reverberations and he pressed the hotline in his appall at this new and strange threat that was bearing down on his city.

A clash of Titans was indeed about to begin. The first one in a while.

* * *

Robin felt something stir deep within him, something that had lain dormant during the months of inactivity-the irresistible lure of the hunt. Basic, easy to understand, uncomplicated. It appealed to a instinctual, feral part of his mind that gave him the bravado to think less and act more when he _moved _to strike. Years of training, planning, practice all came to the fore. Robin Grayson was now in play and in his element, ready to establish justice...his justice, the people's justice, the law's justice. Such simple and powerful conviction in conjuncture with the lust for battle drove him ever faster through Jump City, through congested streets, over unmarked shortcuts that snaked their way through warehouses, parking lots and abandoned patches of dirt and rubbish to carry him in the fastest and most direct route towards the trouble sight.

The powerful motor of his motorcycle, a circular low friction electromagnetic maglev engine, drove him forth a tremendous speed, the winds buffeting against the green tinted visor of his helmet. It was a chilly night, and his uniform didn't provide the best coverage against the cold, but it worked, his cape flapping furiously behind him. Above, Raven flew, silent sentinel over their Eastward trek through urban sprawl and ruin. He turned onto a major elevated highway, driving on the shoulder and racing past the evening traffic that gave him a wide berth.

"Beast Boy!" Robin had jammed the communicator into his ear to muffle the sound of the racing wind. "Where are you!"

"_I was setting up for the auction at school, why!" _Beast Boy's characteristically nasally yet cheerful voice managed to be heard over the roar of the motorcycle.

"Trouble, District 9, section 12, be there ASAP, we got a Level 4 report so it's serious.

"_Alright Glenda, I'll put that table cloth over there…say what Robin? sorry, it's busy in the cafeteria her, a lot of noise." _

"JUST BE THERE!"

"_Yikes okay okay!" _and the phone line dropped. Robin growled and shoved the communicator into his pocket. He was going to reprimand Beast Boy for shirking his duty when he had the chance. There was a throb in his heart, the throb of _leading _a unit and it was profoundly disturbed by the fact that they had a team that was simply _not there _save Raven. He just hoped that the two of them could handle the situation. He had no reason to doubt his confidence that they could-it was probably some sort of psychopath or desperate robber that had a hostage situation of some sort and Robin could deal with that personally. No need to let Raven bring in the heavy artillery if that was the case, but even as yet, years of experience told Robin to hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

He got a sinking feeling that tonight was going to be far from an easy situation. Overhead, racing past at speeds that outstripped even his motorcycle's breakneck pace, he glimpsed a flashing ball of surging emerald power that left an energy streak behind it that flew close to the rooftops and then arched back into the now darkened skies. Clouds were moving in, casting the entire world into a shade of grey, as a cold, cruel wind began to blow.

Robin gulped. What devilry was this?

The sonic boom hit him a second later and damn near crashed him. Robin gritted his teeth as the jarring sonic disruption sent him skidding and dodging around several cars that had slammed on their breaks in surprise. His breaks squeled as his heart pace increased dramatically and he clenched every muscle in his body in the sudden danger of a high speed collision. High street lamps over the highway flickered on and off, shattering his concentration.

He came to a screeching halt, his engine's hum dying as he came to a abrupt stop.

"You alright?" he heard Raven call as she broke out of her flight pattern and descended to where he had stopped. He took off his helmet and squinted his eyes behind his mask, trying to identify the unidentified flying object that had just flown past.

"What is that?" he didn't bother answering Raven's previous question, instead pointing out the UFO that was now in the distance, flying just beyond some low cloud cover, each clouds glowing a ominous shade of green from the luminance of object as it raced past them.

She turned her attention absently to the subject in question and frowned, closing her eyes and dipping her cloaked head, some violet bangs of hair dipping outwards as she concentrated. He knew that she was sending out a probing pulse of telepathy to try to make contact with it.

Her eyes snapped open, widening as she hardened her expression.

"A freak…" she hissed, as though she had touched something unholy.

"Raven…?" Robin asked, unsure of what she meant. "What do you mean by…whoa!" he was blasted back with a flapping silky cloak as Raven blasted away suddenly, giving chase. Bewildered, he watched her rapidly shrinking figure as she tore after the thing, moving towards downtown.

"Well, I guess that answers my question" he leapt back onto his motorcycle and roared off after her. However, he felt sorely disadvantaged, moving at a snail's pace compared to the lickety split race that Raven flew in the air.

Raven…now he was concerned. If she was perturbed by this new threat, it was a threat indeed. He just hoped that he would get there in time to catch either the action or the downfall. Either way, he braced himself. He tore down the highway and then down an exit ramp, down into the canyons of skyscrapers that lined the streets of the financial district. It didn't take long to get to where the battle had already erupted.

The battle was raging. Raven looked…predatory and was on a savage attack. Robin slowed his bike and craned his neck upwards. He really missed StarFire right now, because he was stuck on the ground while the combatants were now fighting hundreds of feet above his head.

A sudden pause in the action allowed him survey the participants. Raven circled her prey, her face locked into a hawkish, fierce expression, her mouth a thin line, her eyebrows locked into a sharp V across her forehead. Usually, she was a dark bastion of calm, passive stability during their fights, but this was different. Her hood was down, cloak fluttering in the sheer power that surrounded her in a deadly black aura and shimmered, the energy leaking out into waving tendrils of darkness and shadow. Complete with her classic ebony leotard and alien looking belt, short cut violet hair that was blowing about wildly with the breeze at that altitude, she was a fierce-some sight indeed, looking like some surreal predator from a distance, waiting to pounce.

Her prey was new and looking just as deadly. Robin inspected the newcomer, a spectral adolescent boy that was his late teens, pale, stern face that had two…definitely luminous crimson eyes that stared back at Raven with a strange mixture of fear and belligerence, cast between his locks of reflective silver hair. Dark uniform, functional…the marks of a bounty hunter. He too was surrounded with a glowing aura of potency, green sparks lashing out from the faint sheen of bright, toxic green energy that was shifting around his tense form.

"Hey!" Robin shouted as he shot a grappling hook upwards and ascended quickly up the side of a building, grabbing the edge and flipping over onto his feet into a fighting stance, a confident smile crossing his face. No need to be intimidated…yet.

But Raven didn't respond to his presence, nor did the newcomer. They were engaged in a mental struggle of some sort, unseen and unheard, their eyes, one set blue and one set a glowing crimson, were locked with the other.

Robin examined the both of them, nonplussed, before stepping forward, talking out a boomerang menacingly, focusing on the unfamiliar. "Well, if you're not going to do anything, let's wrap this up, shall we Raven?" His callous attitude was rewarded when he walked into an invisible barrier and was thrown back, letting out a yelp of pain as green sparks fizzled around his body.

"I wouldn't interfere if I were you" the unfamiliar person muttered, not even flinching from Raven's unblinking gaze.

"Robin, back off, this is between him and me" Raven said through gritted teeth. "This is a matter for us supernaturals and no one else."

"Fine" Robin groaned as he matted his hair, which was sticking on end from the shock, and pressed it back into its close cropped, spiky form. "Just know that I wouldn't mess with Raven, because you're playing with fire"

"And you're playing with ice" the newcomer said in a near hiss, before vanishing. His voice was a strange, alien sound that sounded half way between a echo and rasp, terrifying yet mesmorizing at the same time; a truly haunting voice that even made the stoic wonder boy shiver with a tinge of fear.

It should have cued Robin in on the impending violence.

Raven met the large blast of green energy with her own and then countered on the right, blasting a sphere of dark energy towards thin air. Phantom hissed and flickered back into visibility , before surging forth and throwing up a force field of incandescent emerald and shoving it forth, knocking aside Raven's counter strikes and pushing her back, and bringing him into striking distance.

He sent a glowing fist her way, but Raven twisted backwards and, with a swirl of her cloak, blasted a screen of shadows, before diving away. Phantom growled and vanished, but Raven knew where he was by some strange, other worldly sense and lifted her hands, levitating several parked cars and sending them hurling towards thin air where a suddenly frantic Phantom dodged back and forth before flanking right and shooting several quick bursts of green bolts, allaying Raven's attack for just a moment, but moment enough for him to vanish into thin air again.

Robin was helpless. He was now reduced to sitting there and watching, unable to assist or act, but he could still cheer Raven on. "Get him Raven!" he shouted. She shot him a grim smile as she hurtled past, giving chase.

And then she was struck savagely from behind.

From nowhere, Phantom appeared, firing a laser like bolt at Raven which smote her and sent her reeling, staggering backwards, which he followed with a surprising strike; his next fire was a bright blue that seemed to plunge the temperature in the area as though it were a culmination of the arctic winds itself. Robin's eyes widened in astonishment when Raven was encased in a thick sheath of glass that looked similar to ice, and was sent, falling to the street below.

It was too much. Robin again tried to attack, but once again ran into a invisible barrier of jade electricity that once again sent him back, smoke rising from his hair from the enormous voltage that he had been electrocuted with.

It had to be Phantom.

Robin could only watch as the ghostly attacker once again, vanished into thin air. Raven meanwhile, her eyes glowing a steady white, blasted from her icy prison and took off after him, but was sent soaring into empty space.

From unseen corners came bolts, or more disks, of emerald plasma, that then were fired again from an entirely different corner. Raven deflected them with a hastily thrown up shield and returned fire. Windows shattered and the buildings shook as her blasts smashed into the shadowy corners where Phantom might be hiding. This destructive exchange lasted a good 30 seconds before Raven got fed up and began chasing after him.

Robin was left on the rooftop, feeling like a third wheel.

* * *

The two of them did a deadly dance, firing a series of attacks towards each other. Phantom was staying just out of sight and firing from range; too far to pounce on him, too close and hostile to engage and take him down with a telepathic attack. Raven was keeping up, using her senses to detect his erratic path, sending up shields and returning fire with telekinetically launched cars, lampposts and heavy objects, blasts of her dark energy, and at one point, she produced a gigantic shadow bird and sent it after Phantom, who got out of dodge and once again, frustratingly vanished before the shadow bird, which attempted to engulf him, was able to do so.

"You're a freak!" Raven shouted angrily. How dare this…defilement, this insult of the underworld step foot in her city!

"Not the first time someone has called me that!" Phantom called from a hidden corner, his voice reverberating with the eerie quality that all ghosts possessed. "You're a hybrid yourself!"

"But at least I'm somewhat more natural than a child of a twisted accident gone wrong is! Get out of here, before I extinguish your pathetic life" Raven snarled. She was growing more angry and frustrated. His mere precense was disturbing her sense of equilibrium and she was becoming dangerously mentally off balance. Her energy, usually under control, began to lash out, windows and electronics sparking and shattering in a swirl of her dark forces.

"Wow, you sound just like Valerie" he remarked resentfully, before launching several bots of jade power. They flew wide and missed Raven by a considerable distance. "Missed" she muttered.

But they hadn't missed, like homing missiles, they banked about and zeroed in on the half-demon, saturating her with a array of bolts that flew in at strange angles.

She encased herself in a sphere of searing black before, in a fit of frustration, smacked her hands together and uttered a spell. "Night of land, black of dark, begone, for thou art naught a boon in these times of peril" and from her hands a great light lifted, blindingly bright, snow white that cast away the pitch black of the night and set the streets of Jump City, despite the many street lamps and blazing neon lights, into a renewed white light that made the streets seem as if they were in day hours.

Finally, a startled Phantom, hidden in the dark recesses of a commercial building's facade, was illuminated and she set her eyes a creature of wretched despise.

She had heard of such an entity, a marriage between the world of the high ghosts, the most powerful and luminous spirits in all the realms of the dead and the specters, of whom were highly intelligent and great manipulators of energy, with a human soul. The dead should not have to suffer a living and now, through some twisted experiment or accident gone wrong, came a person that called himself Phantom that combined the emotionality of the living soul with the spectral abilities of the dead. It was unnatural and a violation of everything that Raven learned.

It was curious actually how such an entity even existed, but it was extremely powerful. Raven drew her power from the dead, but she had to suppress her emotions lest those power destroy her. The power of the dead was at her fingertips only by her ability to be as cold as steel for the polarization of the magic to be turned to her will, a skill that she had made an art. But Phantom, a hybrid of dead and living, could control those powers as he pleased, the two sides being combined into one, unholy union.

His mere existence upset and disturbed the emotional sanctity of the existing and shattered and drained the peace of the deceased.

She had heard rumor of him during her trances, finding solace with the spirits beyond who had whispered of him and his exploits. It discomforted her, but it was the stories of his negative energies that had twisted a good, originally human soul, that had made her grimace.

Now she saw the creature first hand. She wondered who the human had been, that had become this fiercesome adversary. He was in his late teens, very handsome, tall and lithe. She would dare say that he would be quite attractive if he was human, but such notions were utterly disgusting at this point.

The red power of anger and frustration that swirled in his irises, his hair neither young nor old but a silver of timeless age that glittered.

She felt a well of abhorrence burst within her heart and she repulsed him.

"Azarath, Metrino, Zinthos!" she cried out as she fell to the street and placed her fists into the earth and let her powers unleash. This would end here and now. The entire world was engulfed in a inexorable wave of black, supernatural and terrifying that plunged the world into a reality that Raven willed. Time stopped, gravity worked no more and the laws of reality were bent to Raven's pleasing. The ability was a new one for Raven, one she had honed and perfected for years now, capable of throwing everything within a half mile of her into her world.

Phantom was going to suffer.

* * *

Crap.

"_I would be careful if I were you. Raven is the team's trump card, and a force to be reckoned with. Face her and you may seek destruction" _

_Phantom laughed. "I've been trying to get killed for a while now, so if I go out in a blaze of glory, hell, that's fine with me" _

No kidding about the glory.

Raven was both the most utterly terrifying and beautiful person that Danny had encountered since the last time he had seen Sam Manson. Dark leotard that elegantly hugged her arms down to her fingerless gloves, shrouded by a midnight blue cape and hood…if it weren't so serious Danny would have gotten out his binoculars and started wolf whistling.

But it was serious. Danny watched with unmasked fear as he was surrounded with black energies that seemed to change reality itself. He knew that he was in deep trouble and Raven was going to land him in an early grave if he didn't get the heck out of there.

Whispers were tugging at his mind, the sheer force of Raven's mind pressing in on his.

He wasn't sure why she was so hopping mad at him. What had he done? He hadn't wanted to fight but not for his life!

Time to try a different tactic. He wasn't out of options.

Raven arose, sheathed in black energies that smoked and writhed. He was in her world now. Danny became aware that her sentience was around him, pressing in.

He felt utterly at her mercy. He had to cater to that.

"Raven…perhaps we should be more civil about our little game"

"You call this a game?" her voice, suddenly omnipresent and booming, harshly asked him. The black energies surrounding him suddenly flexed like the raised hackles on a cat and he gulped.

"Uh…no, of course not" he said anxiously. "But I didn't mean to make you this angry"

"Who are you?" and she was suddenly in front of him, glaring with eyes that were like white floodlights. Danny's own eye twitched. A nervous hand began to inch towards his neck, product of a nervous habit.

"Well…you seemed to know my name well enough" he chuckled.

She was suddenly inches from him, a hand flashing out onto his neck. She could shift reality as she wanted within her radius of power and Danny realized that he was absolutely at her mercy. It was like facing Freakshow while he wore the reality gauntlet all over again…absolutely powerless.

"I have a zero tolerance for BS, Phantom. You better become a very good story teller right now and tell me some tales about how you got here, who you really are, why are you here, and what do you want. If you haven't noticed, I don't like who you are. You are an insult to the realms of the dead and as a guardian of sorts of those realms, I am not going to be very lenient with you."

"Well, just let me ask you this Raven, why do you think I am hostile? In your self righteousness, do you suppose that I have my own fight, my own struggle?"

"Insulting me does not make for very good diplomacy at this time, Phantom" and she spat his name out as she tightened her choke hold. However, she was suddenly worried. Phantom was grinning, a foolish, silly grin, as though he knew a big secret that she didn't. He himself suddenly felt cheeky and impertinent. After all, he really had nothing to lose.

"I know that, what I want to ask is what you don't know. I think you need to be a bit more…_flexible _in your outlook and perspective. Good guys, bad guys, what about the guys inbetween, caught in cross fire and admired by none, cursed by all? What would you do in my shoes huh? I suppose it was easy fighting the brotherhood of _evil, _but besides my…condition, what makes me inherently evil?"

"Evil is a broad concept and I fight for justice and peace. You disturbed that peace and are a disturber of the spiritual peace, that's enough for me to beat you to inches of your afterlife" she raised her other hand and let it glow white hot. "I hope that we don't meet again Phantom. I don't want to understand you, and so long as you stay as far away from Jump City as you can get, that's fine with me"

"You think I am that simple? Well unlike you, I did my homework and I know about who you are. I know about your struggle with your father and the evil of your own soul, I know that you are seeking a peace that is impossible to find. I know that you are resisting the change of age that is slowly encroaching upon you and you are trying to reverse the clock. We are powerful Raven, and such power makes us much different than the world around us. You are at odds with your team aren't you? You know that you are different from Robin, and Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg. Can you really remain so reclusive from them?"

"You have silver tongue don't you ghost boy. Have you kissed the Blarney Stone? Or what's your little secret that makes you so arrogant" Raven's eyes narrowed. His words were dangerous and surprisingly eloquent. His crimson eyes danced with amusement and she gritted her teeth. She hadn't expected him to be quite so knowledgeable about what were confidential team secrets and his every word seemed to upset her more and more. This was personal now.

"Ahhhhh…you are clever. You see Raven, you underestimate me and, in the words of the Joker, you have to have the _ace in the hole" _he mimicked the Joker's insane voice for a moment with a authentic clarity and accent that disturbed Raven.

"Like my hand around your neck?"

"No, more like, the hand around Robin's neck"

And Phantom dissipated into a cloud of green mist and vanished.

"Bi-location" Raven's eyes widened and she took off, racing back to where she had last seen Robin

* * *

Thanks to

Reviewers. 

**Vrow**

**Happygirl445**

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**ChopSuzi**

**Chrizzie1**

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**Forgottem Memories**

**Kiara the Great**

_Produced by DBack47. March 10, 2012. All rights of story reserved. All concepts of Danny Phantom, Teen Titans and all inclusive characters remain the rights of their respective companies and creators. _

So how do you like them apples? Cliffhanger anyone? I shall have the last laugh!


	5. To use wit To spar To progress

**AN: This is just...ughhh. But enjoy. Review if you get the time or feel the impulse. **

* * *

Robin was unnerved, a sinking feeling settling into his stomach that he had not felt in a long time; doubt. Doubt that he could win. Doubt that what he was seeing was totally real.

He had just seen Raven and Phantom depart, fighting a ongoing battle as they tore into the heart of Jump City, skirmishing as they flitted around skyscrapers and trading banter. Now Phantom was scrutinizing his motorcycle, running a gloved hand over the handles and forward headlight. Hadn't he just vanished? Departing into the heart of the city? Didn't matter whether he did or not, all that Robin knew was that Phantom was pawing _his _motorcycle, eyes cast downwards onto the chrome speedometer as though admiring it.

Villains had been few and far between in recent years, and Robin had dealt with them with passing ease. They were mostly basic, rudimentary criminals that were no more complicated than the three vices of greed, lust, and covetousness. Such simple motivations meant that their moves were easy to predict and that their psychology easy to decipher. Not so with Phantom. He was in an entirely different league, a type of villain, or person that he had not encountered in years.

What made a villain, or an arch-nemesis? It was, as of yet, still a broad and complicated question despite the fact that Robin had been fighting such personas for literally a decade now, starting when he was hardly 8, training with Batman. He had seen them all; megalomaniacs, robber barons, deluded psychopaths, the insane and delusional, the pure malicious and the purely instinctual. There was also, darker memories, of more calculating, and much more brilliant evil criminals, ones that walked the grey area between what was clearly justice and injustice. The Brain…Brother Blood…Slade.

So where did Phantom fall? Robin only tensed his stare when Phantom lifted his head and he was subjected to a full view of those crimson, reflective eyes that were suddenly a view into Phantom's world, terrible, unknown, sad and frustrated with power, power that was relentless and rolling.

It was at that point that Robin knew that he was in serious trouble, but he didn't back down, he didn't step aside. That was for lesser men, and where he didn't have superpowers, Robin made up with his will of iron. Although he had no power to match Phantom, he would stand gallantly and with the sheer strength and will of his tired but resilient soul, charge into the heart of the storm.

Why? Phantom was a threat and needed to be dealt with and, more importantly, understood if that was possible. Anyways he was touching _his _motorcycle, one of his objects of pride and joy. Anyone who did that had to face him…but no need to rush things.

"Do you like it?"

"Why yes" Phantom grasped an accelerator handle, a reticent smile on his face "it's a fine piece of engineering." For a moment, Phantom appeared to be no more than just another young man slightly older than he was. Robin was struck by the oddness of Phantom's actions, which were nearly friendly. It was a hoax, Robin was for sure, but still, the guy seemed to be neither genuinely hostile nor harmless. He just was.

Acknowledgment of his unnaturally colored hair and eyes, as well as the palpable power that visibly rolled off his aura, dashed such a notion.

"Well" Robin's voice dropped an octave and grew sharp and deadly. "It's mine and I don't like when other people touch it"

"Sorry" Phantom said good naturedly and took a single step backwards. "I didn't mean to smudge it" and he smiled further; a genuine, almost sad smile that seemed to hint that Phantom almost didn't want this…deadly exchange. But it was inevitable-two teenagers, one a ghost and a bounty hunter, the other a stoic upholder of the law, were set on a collision course with each other. It was regrettable really, Robin felt for a moment that could be friends…but that was for a different place and different time. For right now, he reached back with a green gloved hand and took out his telescopic staff and extended it, frowning.

"Phantom…that's your name?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but my first name is Danny" he said. Their words were said in such polite tones of voice that it seemed impossible that they were about to fight.

"Well Danny Phantom, I am hereby charging you with a civil disturbance of the peace, violating aviation corridors and breaking restriction on supersonic flights over Jump City found in Article 17, pg. 467 of the Jump City Municipal Rule Enforcement book. As a member of the city's police force, I am hereby authorized to bring you in to the nearest police center for holding till you are given a ticket and will be expected to show up at court at the time prescribed" Robin was astutely familiar with the legal lines that villains regularly violated that gave him the authority to attack them. He spoke with a mechanical tone of voice.

Phanotm looked at Robin, his crimson eyes framed by sad eyebrows, sending a forlorn gaze, as though pleading with the Boy Wonder for mercy, before his gaze hardened as he threw up his head in a fierce laugh.

"You would have the obligation to arrest me anyway on grounds of _murder _and _manslaughter _and the worst you're charging me with is the restriction on supersonic flights, oh pleeeeease…I thought you were a serious superhero Robin, how disappointing"

_And so his true colors come out _Robin thought, knowing that he was alone and significantly outmatched. This fight wouldn't last long.

"Well, I have never been to prison before and I'm not about to start now, so I am going to resist arrest…" Phantom said, a sadistic glee crossing his face.

Robin crouched into a fighting stance. "Then I'm going to have to take you down by force" he ground out, gritting his teeth.

"have it your way, I'll try to make this fair" Phantom's hands suddenly shot out and with a burst of power, a emerald shield sprouting around Robin and Phantom, till they were encased a ring of green flames.

"Let's get down to business shall we?"

Robin struck first, letting out his fiercest battle cry and going for a shock-and-awe move, slamming his pole into the ground and grasping it, then swiveling in mid air to send his feet hurtling with tremendous momentum at Phantom.

He felt a rush of adrenaline as his feet made full contact and sent the ghost staggering backwards. Without pause, Robin unleashed a full blown offensive in his own personal style. Overtime, it had become more refined, more precise, but it was the same style that he had pioneered with Batman-a flashy attack that was unpredictable and engaged the enemy on all sides. Jump and then slam down on the head with staff, rotate 180 degrees for a devastating side kick, spin staff and then strike in several critical areas of opponent that would disable him, make precision move with hand palm downwards at neck with all possible strength and then swipe with legs, kick off wall and drive at chest. Opponent being struck, several times-clumsy but quick blocks deflecting only the most deadly of moves, most of the time being thrashed, face in pain, on the retreat.

Was it this easy? Where was the supernatural bounty hunter that had been such a serious threat to Raven? Robin didn't stop to wonder about this, but only intensified his attack.

It felt good. For the first time in years, he had a worthy opponent and he was thrashing him. Phantom was now stumbling to and fro in a nearly drunken stupor while making sloppy blocks that missed about half the time. Finally, Robin pole vaulted and let gravity and momentum smash through the ghost's block and strike his stomach, sending him sprawling onto the ground as Robin jumped back.

"I guess you're nothing without your powers" Robin grunted as he crouched and, for the cou de gras, seized an explosive fire-engine red boomerang from his belt and poised his arm back to throw it. "Funny, I thought you were going to be more of a challenge" he said with a grim smile. Phantom was on the ground, sitting up on his outstretched arms, face cast away from Robin's triumphant gaze. For all intensive purposes, he seemed down for the count.

Robin threw the boomerang. It hissed through the air as it spun with tremendous speed…and Phantom caught it.

"On the contrary" he said as he lifted his head. He wore an eerie grin that stretched across his face in a Joker-esk fashion. "I was just familiarizing myself with your fighting style…round 2 shall we?"

The boomerang in his hand was suddenly consumed with a swirl of green and fell to the ground, now nothing but ashes. Robin only licked his lips and took a deep breath. There was nowhere to run, the both of them were trapped in his ring of emerald flame. No other option than to…

….

Robin attacked, once again.

Danny knew that the fight was unfair. He was supernaturally endowed with enhanced stamina, speed and strength while Robin was running on simple adrenaline and years of practice, but he was doing himself credit-the Wonder Boy was one of the best fighters that Danny had ever encountered, except for Slade. Slade had used brute strength, but Robin was pure skill, flexibility, dexterity and brilliance in fighting with multiple styles of karate and tae kwon do, adding his own personal touch and flair. It produced a fighting style of beauty, more like a dance of death than a way of street fighting. Danny was almost disappointed to stop Robin, but slowly but surely, he began stepping up his game.

When he had fought Slade, he had intentionally been disciplined about fighting without flight, or intangibility-molecular density reduction. However, he intended to win this time, not merely spar for the sake of sparing. He started by just blocking, then counterattacking.

He knew that in a fair match, he was outclassed by this practiced master, in the same way he had been dominated in the fight with Slade. His style of fighting was sloppy and crude, neither trained nor learnt, but evolved by simple experience and honed by necessity. It was enough that he could stand his own against Robin for a little while, but it wasn't long before he began cheating.

Deflect Robin's kick to the right, double punch at the stomach, swipe right, block right.

He had decided to masquerade as a student at Robin's community college, just to find out who Robin was behind the scenes; he was surprised. For all his proclamations about justice and public speeches about morality, Robin was a sullen, solitary jerk that had a bad attitude. Danny couldn't really blame him, considering that he was there against his will, learning material that he considered irrelevant and below him with a bunch of immature classmates, but he had expected Robin to be more of a wise guru that sat in the back of the classroom, aloof from it all-and he was, just in a different way than he expected.

Robin bypassed a clumsy arm block and slammed his staff on his head. Flip backward, move away, keep moving while the pain subsides. Have to keep Robin at distance. Staff-dangerous.

"_So" Robin twirled a pen as he absently filled out the worksheet, "What do you think about politics?" _

_Danny Fenton laughed. "Come'on, are you that formal? Just loosen up a bit, think outside the box, let's talk about women!" Robin glared at him, before laughing with him. "Well that's a shift-going from talking about politics to women" _

"_We could always talk about Hillary Clinton, she's sort of a half way point…" _

"_Or Sarah Palin!" _

_The two of them guffawed. A few students gave them a funny look before shrugging and looking away. _

Robin…who was he? Deep down inside, a great resentment was embedded in Danny, angry that it was so unfair how Robin was able to enjoy the trust of an entire city, unlimited resources, a legendary mentor and respect on an international level. He had choose to be a hero. But Danny…being a hero had been thrust upon him and it seemed as though the world hated him for it. His city had tried to arrest him, his own parents had been trying to capture him…he had very few allies and none of them able to assist him directly with a few exceptions…and here Robin went, seeing the world in black and white; you were either an evil villain or a good guy. It was so unfair how he could have such stubborn beliefs that didn't give anyone on Robin's bad side the benefit of the doubt, and yet he would ask for just as much if he were on the wrong side of the law.

Success. Danny managed to hit Robin on the knee with a kick, sending him wobbling while he regained his footing. It was enough distraction for Danny to land a solid punch into Robin's abdomen, but Robin struck back with staff, right into Danny's shoulder blade.

Oh that hurt.

"_Well actually politics and women are pretty similar" Danny slyly smiled while Robin raised an eyebrow. "Oh, how so?" _

"_think about politicians; they flirt with the public and they have to compliment them and take them out to dinner and go out on dates, and make sure they say all the right things…and when they screw up, they are saying sorry 24/7" _

_Robin snorted in amusement. "Sure, so what would you call divorce?" _

"_losing the re-election" Danny sniggered. _

"_Well, actually, the reason why they're similar is because it's a combination of fear and ambition-two parties, both scared to try but too proud to step down, sort of bumble their way into a relationship or a election, whatever. Either way, it's always one spontaneous, rocky, high-stakes game of love and hate, gossip and presumptuous honesty" _

"_Awww, way to ruin the fun Robin, I meant it as a joke" Danny gave Robin a playful shove. Robin just shrugged. _

"_I have a lot of time to think about it, that's all" _

"Hey, that's cheating!" Robin, a much different Robin than the Robin that Danny had met at the community college, decked out in his short cape, tights and dull green gloves, his identity hidden behind a mask, aggressive and pitiless, complained loudly as he watched his staff slice straight through Danny as though there was nothing there.

"Just…doing what I _can _do" Danny said with a amused smile, before seizing the staff and lowering its molecular density till it was capable of sliding right out of Robin's hands; intangibility. Robin stepped back, horrified as Danny held the staff to eyelevel, and with a burst of strength, snapped it in half.

Robin's eyebrows went up. His staff was a titanium alloy and designed to bend under extreme stress-not shatter in two. Didn't matter, he had been up against worse odds before…perhaps he could salvage the broken ends…

The broken ends glowed a vivid green and then turned molten, Danny dropping them out of his hands as though tossing some piece of garbage into the trash can.

Okay, now the odds were stacked against him.

Danny only had a predatory grin on his voice and menacingly stepped towards Robin. It felt…good to see fear in his opponents eyes. He had been a hero, and for so long he had watched as people ran away in fright as the police gritted their teeth with a desire for vengeance. Too long had he been mocked, insulted, disregarded for all the good he had done. Too long he had been restricted-and this was their epilogue-a Phantom with no obligation to anyone other than himself and his employers, a Phantom that fought for the sake of fighting, and savored the feeling of triumph.

Although the boomerang in the chest didn't feel much like victory.

Robin abruptly let the boomerang fly before he could do anything and had sent the projectile slamming into Danny, exploding upon contact with a brilliant bubble of intense heat that sent him.

It hurt like hell, but it wasn't too bad, especially compared to what Vlad had done to him sometimes. Danny was sent flying backwards but he levitated back to stability, ectoplasm slowly repairing the flesh wound. It took a lot out of him though. A few years ago, back when Danny's eyes were still green and he had worn a spandex uniform of black and white, such a strike might have put him out of commission, but years of improvement and practice had improved his endurance.

Robin looked around frantically for an opening in the circle of bright, bottle green flames. There were none…was it an illusion? Robin tentatively moved his steel tipped boot towards the inferno, only to hiss as the intense heat threatened to melt it. Damn, he was caught; time to turn to more desperate measures.

Phantom was levitating, bleary eyed as he recovered from the blast, he didn't have much time. Robin pulled out all of his gadgets and launched them, one after another, with as much speed as he could muster, but it was for naught, Phantom's head snapping upwards and, moving lightning vast, dodging the series of boomerangs, a grappling hook, grenades and tranquilizer darts. A few of his boomerangs were fitted to circle back to the target if they missed, but they ran into an invisible barrier that repulsed those fail-safe devices and sent them sizzling, smoking, to the ground, but he had at least winded Phantom. The ghost was breathing laboriously, with a nervous look in his eye…Robin had very nearly hit him. It was at least something to affirm him-had Phantom been distracted, Robin was sure that his boomerangs would have hit home.

Now it was just him and a frustrated ghost.

Robin pulled out his last resort-a dagger hidden in his boot. He had never had to use it before, but now was the time-alone and without options-but Phantom waved a hand and the knife trembled with an invisible force before flying out of his grip.

"What do you want with me, why are you here, why don't you just tell me your devious schemes here and now? You've resisted arrest, why humiliate me further?" he cried out, his voice tinged with a sliver of hysteria at his rather, non-negotiable position. Robin had never been one to withhold his thoughts. Phantom frowned, as though insulted.

"You started it, and whatever devious schemes you imagine me having, you're mistaken"

Robin's eyebrows shot up. "Denial of conscience, well that's not surprising" he then scowled fiercely "but you're here for some reason, and I don't think that it's for the benefit of the city"

"I don't benefit anyone other than myself" the ghost spat "I'm here because of you."

"Oh, so a confrontational type" Robin snarled. But Phantom didn't answer him directly.

"listen Robin, I was a hero once, look me up. I defended my turf like you protect this city and I got nothing but misery from it. Morality is such a relative thing and justice exists only the pages of the rule books. You think you know justice?" his voice turned icy and he began to float closer to Robin, some sort of anger crossing his face.

"Then why don't you go and try to give some hope to those miserable people in Somalia, or go and redistribute the decadence of the wealthy for the miserable in India, go and see that heroism at home is nothing but sheer vanity, committed to give a city something to crow about in visitor handbooks, merchandising companies something to sell, and something for newspapers to write about. You've done good, but if you really believed what you wrote down for _Time Magazine's _hero of the year report, you wouldn't be just beating up back alley drug dealers in this city or living in that fancy house of yours, you would be serving humanity"

"Well then screw off! Look at one, pompous, arrogant and overpowered crank that is apparently a freak of some sort, going around and making trouble. I don't talk to hypocrites even if I am one"

Phantom only let a grin, Grinch-like, cross his face. "Well then, since we both share the same decrepit morals, why don't we _settle _our arguments, here and now"

Robin was thinking furiously, trying to find a way to win this battle of wits. Phantom was beginning to slowly float closer to him, hands sparking with jade energy. "Are you evil?" Robin blurted out, one of the first things that came to mind. Actually, he had been able to defeat both Mumbo Jumbo and Doctor Light more than once by asking such a rhetorical question which had ground them to a halt to make them think. The effectiveness of such a question lay in the fact that those who committed evil acts rarely considered themselves as evil, save psychopaths. It was a self analysis question, and it usually acted as a distraction, giving Robin time to get out of dodge while the villain struggled to find a satisfactory answer.

But Phantom did the same, casting his eyes downwards, brow furrowing, but unlike Mumbo Jumbo and Doctor Light who had simply stopped what they were doing for a moment to think, Phantom continued to inch forward, his hands still charging with power.

"Evil? That's a good question, but one that I'm not going to answer" Images of a mutated, older form of himself materialized in his mind, before being smothered by years of denial and mental frustrations. "but I prefer, a person of no morals" he said after a quick pause, glancing back at Robin with serious eyes.

"For a person of no morals, you seem pretty moral about fighting me. If you had really wanted, the fight would have ended before it began"

"I am a person of honor. Not morals. I feel that a person may not have a right to morality, but merely their own intuition about what is right or wrong which can be formed by themselves or by their circumstances-morals can be taught and extolled, but rarely are morals superior to a person's right to freedom, dignity, respect and their own greed for power or lust for indulgence. Thus, morals remain relative"

"And as for honor?" Robin asked, slightly curious.

"I call honor-dignity and respect. You can't have honor without both. Every person on this good earth desires a measure of dignity-that is freedom of speech, life, and the pursuit of happiness, and respect, which is a feeling of self assurance of your own adequacy-your right to even be alive. Honor is a combination of the two. That is my value-my own honor and the honor of others"

"Antiquated and twisted values in my opinion, who taught you them?"

"Life can be a mean teacher sometimes, and it lies often" Phantom said without pause. "You can't imagine what dark places of this country I've been to and survived. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or more unstable and that's how I went from a adolescent hero to a bitter bounty hunter and NOT a villain"

"Bounty hunter?" Robin was surprised and slightly anxious by this new revelation "then who placed the bounty?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out" a wan smile crossed Phantom's face, before he frowned. "Now are we going to finish our little spar, or are we going down to McDonalds to share a Frappe with each other and discuss my convictions"

"Why don't you just go home" Robin was suddenly angry again, aggravated by Phantom's flippancy and his unclear objectives "I don't take any of your bull crap, I think that you're a smug, self assured, over compensating and one twisted individual with half baked ideals that never had a father willing to show you how to be a man without being a bully"

Uh oh. Him and his big mouth, it had got him in trouble before and it was going to get him in painful trouble again. Phantom was incensed by the words and raged, his aura pitching a sickly green that roiled as his feet finally touched the ground, Phantom strode up and, ignoring Robin's fists as they swung through his intangible form harmlessly, and grabbed Robin by the lapels. His mere touch sent a shock of energy through Robin and the boy wonder let out a hiss and then a muted cry as his brain was overloaded with copious amounts of pain, while Phantom lifted him into the air.

"Listen Dick Greyson" Phantom's voice had dropped unnaturally, taking on a demonic tone, eyes glowing like red coals as he seethed with some deep seated rage. "I had a father and he rejected me. I had a mother and she disowned me. I had a sister who was taken from me. I had a life till these damned superpowers came and stole my morals and replaced them with instability. I had an honor of my own till everyone I knew decided that I didn't matter and I was some sort of lesion that was to be dissected and discarded like some sort of disease. I became Lazarus, one foot in hell and one foot on earth, torn between the world of selfishness and of obligation to my community, between the world of my own humanity and the world of my own freakish nature and you know what, I'm not a great person, I was not born to be great, I'm just a 18 year old punk that was supposed to go on and become a mediocre student at college and then get a degree and get on with my life, but fate screwed me over and I was cursed with this misery of being the hunter and the hunted. So I choose the selfish way and now I work for myself, live for myself, trying to stave off a nervous breakdown that would turn me into some sort of monster more than I already am. So lay off and just let me be who I am without questioning that or insulted whatever honor I have left. Just because your circumstances were more favorable than others doesn't give a moral supremacy and it doesn't give you any more right to be in this city than my right to be here as well!"

"You're…not evil just screwed up" Robin managed to splutter "now please, just set me down and we can…"

"Ta-l-k" but tunnel vision prevented his last plea from speaking any sort of reason with Phantom, and the bounty hunter slammed Robin down, the Wonder boy hitting the pavement with a sickening crack and a moan. His vision flashed red and swam as his thoughts were blotted out with blackness. His head had hit the pavement particularity hard.

Sirens wailed in the distance. The glass office buildings reflected the flickering light of the flames while some fearful onlookers peered around corners, trying to catch a glimpse of the action.

Robin felt pain blossom in renewed degrees of agony as. He dimly made out Phantom, standing over him, working his jaw up and down with clenched hands, his eyes a steady crimson, hair seeming to have gained a power of its own as it wavered in an invisible breeze, glowing sliver in the surreal light.

"Well" he croaked, speaking itself painful "finish me if you're so angry about it. Come on" he coughed, before spitting to the side and clearing his throat "do your worst"

But Phantom seemed, almost saddened by the words and for a split second, his eyes changed color to match his energy signature-a steady emerald, before they morphed back into that angry red.

He knelt down and placed a hand on Robin. Unable to stop him, but more importantly, unwilling to risk more pain, Robin stayed still as Phantom checked his wrist and jabbed a finger onto his vein, taking his pulse, then he gingerly moved a hand over Robin's chest, then his shoulders and finally his neck. He was checking him for serious injury. Robin hissed when Phantom touched his shoulder; his collar bone had to be broken. Funny, the guy had been threatening to kill him less than 30 seconds ago.

Perhaps it was the sheer amount of pain that was putting him in a momentary delirium, but he almost liked the feeling of just lying there. Life was cruel to him, striking him when he was weak, in the midst of the great peace that he had maintained in Jump City for years. A single opponent, a single adversary and all that time was suddenly at an end. Here he was, like a fly caught in a spider's web, unable to free himself, totally dependent now on the Spider's sense of so called 'honor' to let him go. Maybe he would. He might. Phantom was a different kind of rival, not one that would kill him; more direct and up front, yet still just as dangerous.

It was a moment of self pity, of indulgent misery, half coherent dreams of paradise and happiness. Robin felt himself drift off, when he saw Phantom extinguish the circle of flames and then place his hand on his throbbing shoulder. There was a pleasant surge of cold there, like an icepack that encased his arm socket and broken collar bone.

"Ice powers, they come in handy" he partially heard Phantom's voice, but was slowly slipping away into darkness. "Raven's on her way, and I think she's pretty pissed at me"

"I hope she is" Robin moaned "bi-location?"

"Yeah, that's another skill that comes in hand" he said, but he frowned. "I'm…sorry it came to this, but this is only starting Robin"

"Sure, you're a real charitable guy aren't you?" he said, wheezing a bit. He wanted to say more, he wanted to keep fighting, he wanted to redeem himself, but he was falling slowly into unconsciousness. Thoughts slowed, the throbbing pain numbed, and the world dimmed away.

* * *

His dream was lurid but surreal. He stood atop Titans tower, looking out towards Jump City and it's gleaming skyline, the familiar glass sheathed skyscrapers and commercial districts of older brick buildings and stores, next to the descript and rusty industrial warehouses where so many of their battles had taken place with their narrow streets and abandoned bars, alongside the rundown neighborhoods of cracked windows and muffled shouts. He was floating, almost like Raven's levitation power, and at the same time, he wasn't, he merely existed as a free spirit, freed from the constraints of physics or reality itself. Time passed without measure or speed, and Robin saw a day elapse, planes racing overhead, the freeways fill and empty of rush hour traffic, the streets dance with shadow and sunlight while a million people went their own ways in the thriving metropolis, the metropolis that he had saved from damage and destruction more times than he could count.

Night came, and as the sun descended and flashed the evening glows of red, pink and orange upon reflective bay windows of the city, lights began turning on, one by one, soon turning the city of metal and brick into a glittering display of electrical power in the night, capped by a flickering crown of flashing aircraft warning signals.

'_This is your city Robin, so glorious and beholden, a establishment of human ingenuity and progress, but also a many leveled battleground of vice and virtue, greed and selflessness. You stand in the center, and you think it all revolves around you. In a way, it does' _

The dark outlines of the buildings faded and all other details except the lights dimmed into nothing.

'_so many lives, and you feel beholden to all of them, failing to realize their own struggles and resentments. With proper motivation and strategy, it's very easy to disassemble this matrix' _

A great hand blotted out all else and struck the city, the lights scattering, like a jar of marbles dropped on a stone floor, clattering and bouncing away, before going out like candles in a strong breeze, leaving only his reflection in the center.

'_but really, all that you are beholden too is yourself and your ideals. You stand alone, a young man of such interest. What is Richard Greyson's future? Living for himself, or will he become like one of those lights, so easy to scatter and extinguish when alone?' _

"Dude…" something heavy was on his chest

"Duuuuude" something breathed heavily on his face. His eyes sight slowly returned, a blurry image at first, but quickly becoming clear.

"Fooocus Duude" a green face, a turtle face came into focus.

Robin groaned.

"Awwww hey Dude!"

"Get OFF me Beastboy!" and Robin shoved the heavy turtle off his chest, which morphed into a chortling and delinquent shape-shifter that was sent sprawling onto the floor, roaring with laughter. Robin sat up and saw Raven shoot him a small smile as she watched Beast Boy extract himself from the base of his bed and get up with a mischievous smile; two fangs sticking from his bottom lip.

"Welcome back to the land of the living" she said.

* * *

"Did you implant the dream?" a dark shape grunted.

"Yeah, but I almost got toasted by one very mad Raven" Phantom said as he adjusted his gloves, sitting back and counting the large stack of large denomination federal bank notes called dollar bills that he had received. "Robin may be weak, but he's got one hell of a spirit…"

Phantom paused, rubbing a hand down on his cheek. "I think I underestimated him, he nearly nicked me back there. He's nothing without his team, but give him a long enough stick and he'll make sure that he whacks hard. I don't want to see him with his entire team assembled, they'll make short work of me. With Cyborgl, Starfire…damn, going up against them is like offering them a menu of what they want Phantom 'a la king' for dinner.

"No matter, we're making progress. We shall divide and conquer" said the shadow with a hint of smugness in his voice, but still in that ponderous, near monotone drawl that gave Robin nightmares and made the bounty hunter a bit more uncomfortable every time. But he wasn't backing down; at this point, there was no return. He was committal, his honor and his respect as a freelance bounty hunter at stake.

Phantom sternly looked at the shadowed Slade with steely eyes.

"There is no 'we' in this affair"

* * *

**Credits**

supaherolena02

None (Anonymous)

DizzlyPuzzled

starhedgehog1117

cocoa85715

kirara the great

Chrizzie1

XxCondorxX

prophetofgreed

DarkNekoGirl92

DannyRaven Lover

ChopSuzi

R. S. Willow

Masked Bard of Chaos


	6. Convalescing

The run down Motel _Gabriel Richard _was built in a different day an age, back when the broad street that ran past it had been brimming with traffic and the small, assorted stores that boxed it in, ranging from a hardware vendor, to a large collision repair shop, or the furnishings business with its cheerful bay windows that had once been plastered with deals and sales of all sorts of household trinkets and goods, had been thriving. That was decades ago, and in the wake of the nearby closure of an automotive supplier plant, the rolling mill, and the large office building between them, the stores had become empty dust warehouses, plants slowly but surely thrusting their stalks up through the cracks of their bare and cracked concrete floors, the windows one by one being successively cracked and shattered by a thousand vandals and thunder storms, and the walls becoming stained and fractured with the forces of erosion. One could smell the decay in the air, the smell of rusting, long since abandoned cars in the collision repair enterprise lot, the smell of urine in the alley ways where only the homeless and destitute dared to walk, and the unmistakable scent of the leaves and stalks of a thousand weeds that were slowly reclaiming the shattered pavement of these looted and dilapidated streets and parking lots.

And yet the hotel still stood, a single business that was stubborn enough to proclaim how civilization was able to endure in this urban wasteland on the far East side of Jump City. For those poor souls that had nowhere else to go besides this deplored area, the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown, usually visible even through the early morning smog or gloomy Pacific Ocean rain, promised a life that they could never have.

The hotel itself was a 4 floored, brick structure that was losing every bit of its outside coat of white paint, leaving the façade blotchy as though the building was diseased of some sort. Only the bottom 2 floors were actually used, and it was questionable if they were useable at all. The hallways were dimly lit and painted a surreal shade of grey that became utterly terrifying in the strange, flickering light of the ancient fluorescents, running past the metal doors of the rooms. At least they were nicer inside; 4 walls of battered plaster, painted a cheerful white, leading down to the beaten and stained carpet of a dark rouge color. The furniture was really what showed the age of the place, because right now, their dust and web covered interiors that had not seen the light of day for 30 years or so, were being blown apart by plasma blasts, left and right, throwing up a multitude of air pollutants into the already stuffy air. Thankfully the combatants didn't really need to breathe.

_Danny winced as he felt the fist slam into his right eye, unleashing a shock that blurred his vision._

"_That's for leaving!" _

_His sister was pissed. She swept her leg out and tripped Danny, letting him fall harshly on the floor, before she suddenly straddled him and punched him in the nose, hard. The pain was palpable, Danny felt something liquid slime down his nostrils; blood. Too surprised to do anything, he simply stared up with distracted eyes as Jazz wiped some of the blood and rubbed it between her fingers with disgust before showing it not 2 inches away from his bleeding nose. _

"_You should have freaking told them about this Danny. Now the family is divided, I'm without hope, and you just up and left. Look at this family curse, the ectoplasm which runs in your veins!" _

_Danny looked in unmasked horror at the streaks of iridescent green in the red blood that glittered with potential. Jazz only saw death. _

"_There are so many things worse than death to endure, like the living hell you still put this family and your friends too. Sam might have been dead if it hadn't been for Tucker. You could have had it all Danny if you had just freaking listened to me when I told you to tell them!"_

"YES!" Danny popped up, sweat glistening on his forehead, eyes glowing green, his voice horse and terrified. But it was only a dream.

The room was empty and dark. The hotel didn't even have many occupants, except for the late night pimps and prostitutes, drug dealers and addicts, and the homeless that frequented the place. They were either too absorbed, too dismissive or too hung-over to take note of his raw throated cry derived from his vivid nightmare. They did wonder why they heard the sound of smashing upstairs.

He groaned as he surveyed the room. Almost everything but the bed was in ruin, burned with scorch marks from his sleep derived blasts. His sheets were in shambles from his tossing and turning.

Slowly he settled back into his bed, tossing and turning the remainder of the night with uneasy sleep. As his eye lids flickered back into the closed position, he murmured 1 thing, his voice small and weak, pleading, begging.

"all I want is a measure of forgiveness"

…

"_Hello?"_

"Hello, are you Cyborg's roommate"

"_Yeah, Tucker Foley standing guard." _a voice said cheerfully

"May I speak with him?" Robin replied. He was propped up in the hospital bed

"_Sure, just don't set him off, he's in a rather testy mood tonight because the professor was a bit…excuse me, I mean a jerk to him earlier…hey big guy, there's someone on the phone for ya" _

A moment later and Robin grimaced as he heard a rather grumpy Cyborg grunt a hello. He could faintly hear the sound of computer keys in the background, the hybrid of human and machine typing something. Probably homework.

"_Who are you, what do you want?" _

"Umm…Cyborg, how ya doing?"

"_Great, peachy actually. So what this about, the grass stain whining that I'm not there anymore?" _he was clearly grumpy and Robin winced at the spite within Cyborg's words. This was really not the best night to be calling him.

"Actually, I was wondering if you have any time on Sunday?"

"_Nope, face it Robin, you pissed me off back in June and I'm done okay, so there's no need to be cloying and repentant because you're not taking anymore of my life than you already have. I spent 4 years…wasted 4 years with the Teen Titans and I'll be back __**only **__when I get my life straightened out, so screw off!" _

"Wooah woah Cyborg, calm down, I was just…"

The phone clicked and Cyborg hung up. Short. Vicious. Still Vengeful.

Forgiveness. Robin felt a miserable hole wrench open in his heart, wide and burning. The dull pain of his now treated collar bone was nothing compared to the mental stress that his mind was suddenly under.

These are the times where a person grows old fast, when their sins catch up to their consciousness and then haunt them. The ghosts of Robin's past, all the good times with the Teen Titans, all the events of the last few years, all the success they had met, and within the valleys of his soul, all the true care he had for them. Deep below, he told himself, sometimes unconvincingly that he was honest, virtuous, wise and prudent. But why did he feel like a loser sometimes, why did he feel like he was lying to himself?

Considering that he was a famous superhero with a loving girlfriend, a bed to sleep in and a good home to hearken too, Robin knew that he had too count his blessings lest he become ungrateful to the fates for his lot in life. However materially enriched he was, spiritually he felt stripped of his confidence. On the inside, he considered how he had enraged Cyborg by mandating him to stay home, by hiding his college materials away from him, from ordering him to stay and then coming almost to a fist fight over it. Robin had been too proud and too contriving to truly appreciate Cyborg's seriousness of going to college and moving on with his life.

"_Robin, get out of my way! You're not stopping me" _

_Robin was impassive as he continued to shuffle some police reports. "Cyborg, I ordered you too stay till Mumbo Jumbo is back in prison, Cinderblock is tracked down and we've swept the East side of Jump City clear of crime" _

"_Hell, my orientation is in 2 hours and you're asking me to stay?"_

_Robin turned around in his swivel chair and glared angrily at Cyborg. "I have the authority to cancel your scholarship if I please, so get back upstairs and stand by!" _

"_Well Robin,__ GET OFF MY REAR END! You have not yet stopped being the mother hen back at the T-Tower have you, just thinking that you are right when everyone else is wrong all the time. You don't get it, you aren't here, after my girlfriend dumped me, my professor insulted me, and I failed a test. You can't imagine, you're just so lost being Peter Pan in Never Never Land that you can't live a real life. You can't relate, you don't understand real life. You just want the world to be a comic book for the rest of your life. Well listen pal, I got a news flash for you, I wasn't raised by Batman and I wasn't some alien or demon that has nothing better to do than go and beat up some psychopathic losers. I was a normal kid that happened to get nearly killed by a lab accident back when I was 15 and became a…scientific experiment. I'm trying to live as normal a life as I possibly can by doing what normal people do by going and getting an education. Now is that too hard to understand for you?"_

"_Shut up!" Robin was red faced and shaking. "This is a TEAM Cyborg. We can't just unravel, we can't just fall apart with no regard for the community. That would just give a green light for our enemies to go ahead and resume endangering the team. I care about you, and what if you get hurt out there, what if you find yourself alone against Brother Blood? What if you find yourself involved in crime? Consider that as a team, we stand united as one, and divided __**we will fall **__don't you get it? All you can talk about is me, well think of Beast Boy and Raven, they need you during our fights, your firepower is invaluable…" _

_Cyborg changed his expression. He now just looked blankly at Robin, before turning around and walking off. _

"_I'll cancel your scholarship, I have files on you, I can withhold information!" Robin shouted after him. _

"_Yeah, you and your self righteousness can rot here for all I care. You think this whole world revolves around you and your team, well Robin…news for you. It doesn't" Cyborg didn't even turn around, but he just walked out. _

Robin never did cancel the scholarship or do any of the things he threatened to do, but he was tempted to. He was that close to demanding that the city take Cyborg off financial aid. But he didn't. He was too upright, too moral to give into his own demands.

What bothered Robin was that he had been capable of such threats at all. That _The _Boy Wonder had indeed been a adversary and a obstacle to a positive good, and that unintentionally, he had lost a friend. He hadn't meant for that to happen. Really, he hadn't meant for a lot of things to happen that did; often on his watch. Terra's death and betrayal, Raven's near destruction at the hands of her father, Cyborg's occasional moments of extreme frustration with the team; these were things that in retrospect, Robin knew had been preventable had he made a few more choices and gone the extra mile. But he didn't. Only his pride and arrogance that had lasted as a blind, concealing such obvious facts of shortfall and negligence on his fault to his own eyes and the view of others.

Only now was he realizing that evil was a reticent facet of the soul, those quiet sinister whispers of greed and concupiscence that lay buried within them, flaws that were hidden and hidden well. However, there was also great silent fear that existed to magnify those darker angels of a person's nature and Robin was feeling the full impact of that. It left him blunted, his usually sharp mind disengaged.

Usually, Robin would have been up and at em', ready to challenge the world, but not today. He simply sat in bed, reflecting on how he had more or less been a fool to be so discouraging to Cyborg, how he had lost Terra, how he had nearly lost every member on his team more than once. He missed the glory days, and wondered how they had slipped through his fingers. He was in a mood that was a lot of various dispositions, each one falling and competing with each other in a swirl of self reflection.

From the room adjacent to the medical ward, Raven looked on astonished at Robin, particularly at the dark aura that was emanating from him. Never before had she, with her empathy powers, seen Robin thinking quite so deeply, or depressingly. She wasn't sure what was causing this episode of internal turmoil, but it most likely was a subconscious reaction of denial to the reality of the situation; how weak the Teen Titans had become and how weak he felt. She knew, that the entire team was in danger of splitting, and had been for years, but she seemed to be along in realizing that the Teen Titans were also in grave jeopardy of attack, and that true, malevolent will was set against them by an unknown foe. Phantom, she had a hunch, was the mere tip of the ice burg. There was something ominous convalescing on the horizon, she could feel it, and Robin was seemingly too buried in his own thoughts to realize it.

"I don't like this" a voice startled her and she snapped, reaching out a defensive hand, only to have it caught by…

"we're all ill at ease" Beast Boy said in a unusually grim voice as he lowered Raven's fist. Raven sighed in relief and closed the ajar door to the medical ward so that Robin was shut out from their conversing. She looked at him with a sense of relief that someone, at least someone remained sane within the team. Despite her rather callous and cynical attitude that she displayed flagrantly towards the team, she was none the less concerned for the Titan's welfare, and now that Robin was facing his own internal battles, Beast Boy seemed to be the last Titans she could really depend on.

3 years ago Raven would have perhaps given a amused smile (rare for her) if someone had told her that she would be looking towards Beast Boy with anything more than a affectionate derision, but that was 3 years ago and back when Beast Boy was still somewhat shorter than her. The boy had grown handsomely in the past few years, remaining thin but growing tall so that he now held a few inches of height over her own. He still had that same old, mischievous, boyish look to him, after all, anyone with a fang sticking through the button lip with lime green skin and hair was bound to cause some sort of impish trouble, but his broader jaw and straighter posture was certainly doing wonders for his image of becoming something more than a pre-pubescent teen. His character had changed certainly; he was even more impish than ever before, but also when the time called for it, much more serious.

And those were one of those times. His eyes were dead set and focused, his expression both thoughtful and watchful at the same time. It was a expression that Raven could trust…

"we are in danger Beast Boy, and Robin doesn't seem to notice. It's so unlike him, and that doesn't sit right with me"

"What's wrong?"

"I think this is perhaps a product of missing Starfire, but also getting roughed up last night, and getting chewed out by Cyborg"

"Ouch" Beast Boy said gravely "that bites, no pun intended"

"For him I suppose it does" Raven said, ignoring the sly grin that flashed across Beast Boy's face at his rather crude pun. She was still aloof towards him. They both paused for a moment, thinking.

"So…now what?" he asked.

"We wait…Robin won't let us down, he'll pull himself out of this" Raven said grimly, through she didn't sound convincing. "and if he doesn't, I guess it's just you and me"

"and Cyborg…Starfire" Beast Boy replied. "if we can get them to come back. We just need a week and a plan. That's not too hard is it?"

Raven only gave Beast Boy a glance in response before peering back into the medical ward. Robin was still sitting up in bed, eyes focused elsewhere. He was thinking. That was a good sign. She retracted her gaze and pondered the situation. "We must be cautious. At this point Beast Boy, before we go on, can you promise me something?"

"Sure"

"You won't ever forget that beyond being a team, we are good friends and depend on each other. If I'm ever in trouble don't…" she hesitated, choosing her words carefully "…give away your values, of me, of Robin, of the team. A Titan begins in the heart, and that's all I want you to remain true too"

"What are you saying?" Beast Boy said nonplussed.

"This is going to be a trial by fire. Don't be surprised if we all shall face the crucible sooner or later" Raven said ominously, her eyes flashing darkly. She wasn't quite sure why she felt so…unsettled on the inside, but she knew that this time, luck and unity were two virtues that were not going to be on their side.

Beast Boy only shivered. Raven's foresight was unnaturally accurate and was more than just educated guessing, Raven could literally feel the future and if Raven said that things were going to hell in a hand basket, than he better take care.

Without warning, Robin emerged.

Both of his comrades looked at him with blank expressions.

"I am moving the team from the Green to Orange Status. We meet in the conference room in 20 minutes"

**Revised Chapter 6. **

**Thank you too specifically Book phan44 for the kick in the pants. **


End file.
